If you are looking for a destination with a difference, Algeria may be just the sort of place you had in mind. Filled with interesting architecture, a whole lot of history and stunning landscapes, Algeria has a lot to offer the average tourist. And best of all – your friends are unlikely to have ever been to Algeria before! For a holiday where you get to be the first to take the plunge into the unknown, visit Algeria’s cities! Some of the best Algerian cities are located along the Mediterranean coastline and will offer you the chance to enjoy the beautiful blue waters of the sea whilst in a very dessert-like country.

Algeria’s best city is most probably Algiers. As the countries largest and most important city as well as the capital, it has a whole lot to offer the average tourist. The city is a stunning visual contrast of the bright blue waters of the Mediterranean and the white of the many glistening white-washed buildings that characterize the city. Algiers has a great harbor, plenty of entertainment and a number of interesting museums and historical buildings worth seeing. It also has a great history and is one of the best places to learn more about the French and Arab cultures that pervade Algeria.

Another great must see is Oran, the birthplace of Rae music. Founded by Andalusian traders around 937 AD, the city is wonderfully old and has many longstanding cultural traditions. Oran is Algeria’s second largest city and it serves as an industrial, cultural and educational centre for the country. Perhaps the best aspect of visiting Oran is that a short drive out of town will have you at a number of great beaches where you can relax and enjoy the sunshine.

Batna started life as a French fortress but has long since been transformed into a picturesque little town in north-eastern Algeria. Today this French-styled town has become a centre for Algeria’s theatre and it features numerous cinemas, “cinematheques” and a culture house. When you’re not watching talented young artists perform live, you might try touring the architecturally interesting town, visiting the great agricultural market or taking a day trip out of town to visit the ruins of two nearby Roman cities that are bound to capture your imagination.

There are many more Algerian cities to tour.

In 1832 the then French Government conceived the idea of forming near the town of Algiers a botanical garden, in which all plants likely to be easily grown in Algeria, and which might be useful either for their ornamentation, or from their economic value, should be kept for distribution or for sale.

A portion of ground situated between the sea and the public road, and occupying the place of an old hamma or marsh, was selected for this purpose, which is about two miles from the town.
Bursting leaves of date palms grab the attention first and bring to mind the desert oasis. Beneath them stands a man wearing fez, tunic and seroual. And behind, the stiff leaves of drought-resistant dragon trees. A desert garden? That impression lasts only a moment, for then we are everywhere at once: on the right we have tropical plants (perhaps papaya), Cycas revolutas (or sago palms from Japan and China ) and Eucalyptus, and on the left Yuccas from South America , bougainvillea, and a soaring Norfolk Island pine. In fact, while not far from the Sahara , this is no desert. This is the Jardin d’Essai in Algiers .

The Jardin d’Essai is a botanical garden – an experiment in the adaptation of foreign plants to the region undertaken by the French in 1832. Judging from the height of the Norfolk Island pine, the scene dates from the 1870s. The photograph was taken by a professional photographer – unknown – and purchased by a French traveller – also unknown. It was pasted into a late-nineteenth-century album entitled D’Alger à Tunis , now in the special collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute (94.R.51). The album served to illustrate a North African trip in much the same way people today show slides of the places they have seen on vacation. And the Jardin d’Essai was one of the ‘must sees’ of any visit to the area. Of course, if you were a Vanderbilt, a mere photograph wasn’t souvenir enough. In 1892 George Vanderbilt chose to remember his North African visit by purchasing a painting of the Jardin, by Renoir. The photograph, no less than the painting, is a very Western representation of a supposedly exotic site that is, in fact, a very Western creation. The figure in dress native to Algiers (the fez seems to be a checheya) posed amidst an Orientalist profusion of exotic plants has likely been placed there by the photographer to provide a sense of the picturesque as well as scale. The picturesque was on Edith Wharton’s mind when she visited the Jardin in 1888. She writes (in her newly published diary, Cruise of the Vanadis, New York : Rizzoli, 2004):

Mustapha, though quite as pretty as any of the suburbs near Cannes or Nice, lacks the neatness and garden-like look which we associate with the Riviera ; but perhaps the general air of slovenliness is atoned for, to many eyes, by the picturesque populace filling the untidy streets. And nowhere in Europe could one see anything so Oriental as the little arcaded café at Mustapha, where white-robed Algerines sit crouched on the terrace, drinking their coffee under a group of plane-trees. We passed the summer palace of the Governor, getting a glimpse of well-kept gardens through the gateways, and then drove through the Vallon de la Femme Sauvage … This wild little ravine led us to the Sahel ; and here we found the Jardin d’Essai which I was particularly anxious to see.

We walked under avenues of India-rubber trees as large as oaks, and between quarter called Mustapha Inférieur , lying near the sea on the lower slope of trellises of tea-roses in bloom, and high clumps of Arundo donax , but a cold wind sweeping through the long alleys made the scene cheerless in spite of this southern vegetation. It was, however, a bad time to visit the Jardin d’Essai , for it had been very cold for some days in Europe, and we heard afterwards that there was snow at Avignon and skating near Marseilles , while we were shivering under the India-rubber trees of Algiers . Perhaps it may have been owing to the exceptional weather that all the more delicate palms such as Lantana borbonica , Phoenix , Cycas revoluta , etc, were sheltered by tents of matting.

The French invaded Algeria in 1830 and within two years set to work on the Jardin d’Essai . Agriculture was crucial to successful colonisation, and the experimental testing ground of the Jardin was part of the conquête des terres . The most successful experiment of them all came from Australia : the Eucalyptus tree, which thrived in its new setting. The Eucalyptus proved especially useful alongside vineyards, and today it is everywhere; so much so, that Algerians think of it as native.

In the Gardens conference last December at the Getty, I learned that Chinese and Japanese gardens were devoted in part to facilitating erotic trysts. This, I figured, this would not apply to desert gardens, with their cactus needles and spikey blades, hardly conducive to erotic get-togethers – unless you are a lizard. But I was wrong. Algerian society provided few opportunities for young people to meet one another, and the Jardin d’Essai , as a public garden and the finest promenade in the city, was one such opportunity. André Gide in his notorious Nourritures Terrestres celebrated the fruits of the Jardin d’Essai which he had never tasted before. The reputation of the Jardin as a place to find forbidden fruit darkened toward century’s end. Since the 1980s, unless you were walking with children and thus clearly en famille , you might be harassed by Islamic fundamentalists or even by Jardin employees, who suspected singles and couples of hetero- or homosexual intentions. In the last two years, it appears that the Government, as part of its campaign against the Fundamentalists, has asked employees in public gardens to use a lighter touch.

The Jardin was not segregated during the colonial period to the degree that other parts of the city were. Nor was there much obviously ‘French’ architecture in the Jardin that might have been off-putting to Algerians. As a result, the Jardin ‘s complicity in colonisation has been largely overlooked. The four star Sofitel Alger, which adjoins the Jardin , praises it as ‘one of the six most beautiful botanical gardens in the world’ and guidebooks refer to it as one of the pearls of the city. Like the Eucalyptus – it is considered very much Algerian. In that sense, it is itself a success story in the world of adaptation.

Tipaza was founded by the Phoenicians.

It was made a Roman military colony by the emperor Claudius, and afterwards became a municipium.

The Roman city was built on three small hills which overlooked the sea.

Of the houses, most of which stood on the central hill, no traces remain; but there are ruins of three churches — the Great Basilica and the Basilica Alexander on the western hill, and the Basilica of St Salsa on the eastern hill, two cemeteries, the baths, theatre, amphitheatre and nymphaeum.
The line of the ramparts can be distinctly traced and at the foot of the eastern hill the remains of the ancient harbour.

The basilicas are surrounded by cemeteries, which are full of coffins, all of stone and covered with mosaics. The basilica of St. Salsa, which has been excavated by Stéphane Gsell, consists of a nave and two aisles, and still contains a mosaic. The Great Basilica served for centuries as a quarry, but it is still possible to make out the plan of the building, which was divided into seven aisles.

Under the foundations of the church are tombs hewn out of the solid rock. Of these one is circular, with a diameter of 18 m and space for 24 coffins. Commercially it was of considerable importance, but it was not distinguished in art or learning.

Christianity was early introduced, and in the third century Tipaza was a bishop’s see.
Most of the inhabitants continued non-Christian until, according to the legend, Salsa, a Christian maiden, threw the head of their serpent idol into the sea, whereupon the enraged populace stoned her to death.

The body, miraculously recovered from the sea, was buried, on the hill above the harbour, in a small chapel which gave place subsequently to the stately basilica.

Salsa’s martyrdom took place in the 4th century. In 484 the Vandal king Huneric (477‑484) sent an Arian bishop to Tipaza; whereupon a large number of the inhabitants fled to Spain, while many of the remainder were cruelly persecuted.
Tipaza revived for a brief time during the Byzantine occupation in the 6th century but was given the Arabic language name, Tefassed, when Arabs arrived there. The term translated means badly damaged.

Kasbah quarter, Algiers is one of the tourist attractions in the city. Algiers is a cosmopolitan city and is the capital of Algeria. It offers a host of attractions to the tourists thereby making it a famous tourist spot. You can sight some of the most impressive structures while you are on a travel to the city. While going around the city, you must definitely visit the Kasbah quarter, Algiers. This is the most traditional part of the city and tourists visit the place to see the many old structures that are located here.

Kasbah quarter, Algiers is the citadel of the city. Kasbah is a small city that was constructed on a hill and which goes down to the sea. The city is divided into two: the low city and the high city. The streets are joined to each other by a number of alleys. The houses that line the streets are made of stone and are whitewashed. These are square and flat topped structures. There are no windows in the houses. Instead there are a few slits in the walls which have iron gratings. There is the quadrangle in the center of the house and which can be reached by a narrow doorway. The shops are not separate structures but openings in the walls. You would get a wide variety of products in these places. Some of the products include embroidery and ornaments in gold and silver. This place has a mixed population comprising Arabs, Jews, Moors and Negroes.

The construction of the Kasbah quarter, Algiers was started in 1516. There are three masonries and many mosques that belong to the 17th century. There is the Ketchaoua mosque, mosque el Djedid, El Kebir, Ali Betchnin mosque, Dar Aziza and many more. These are all famous structures and have beautiful exteriors and very well designed interiors. There are many remains of old monuments in the region as well. You are sure to have a great time exploring the ruins of this old city.